So this was Vulcan, the leader of the VolcanoWings.

He was large, even larger than Mother, and his black scales were like pure darkness. He stared down at all of us, studying us each with cold, unblinking, fire-colored eyes.

"I hope you haven't' started without me", he rumbled slowly. "That would be... impractical."

"We haven't started without you", Mistral replied. "Please, find somewhere to sit."

Vulcan slowly walking over towards one side of the cave, and I turned around to face Mistral's throne to watch his assistant follow suit. Both dragons placed themselves between the ArcticWings and the FeatherWings, which were close to the throne. His assistant with the sky-creature followed suit.

These were the most dangerous dragons in the world, according to external sources, and we were letting them right into our own territories.

"Uh", one of the FeatherWings gawked at Vulcan's assistant. "You have a sky-creature on your back."

"Oh!" the dragon said. "This is Firehead, and he won't hurt you, unless you provoke him."

Firehead. What an odd name to give your sky-creature.

Owning sky-creatures as pets was rare amongst us dragons. It was more common that the sky-creatures tamed dragons who approached their settlements, not the opposite way around.

"Alright", the StormWing monarch sighed. "Let us formally begin." She handed the black box that was in her talons to the dragon nearest to her throne, which was an ArcticWings.

"I have gathered you all here because of what is passing around. These 'boxes' have been seen taking samples of the Mountain Claws' environment by my dragons. I have also heard reports from others that these same boxes have been taking samples of all of Eukarya's environments. We know that the sky-creatures came here years ago, and took such samples of their surroundings before expanding their settlements, but not with technology with this."

The box was now in the talons of a FeatherWings whose body was covered in black feathers, save for the head which was white, and the beak and scaly legs which were yellow.

Mistral continued.

"If we know where these come from or who made it, we can formulate a plan to defend ourselves and the planet."

The black-and-white FeatherWing had passed the box on to a dark green TreeWing.

Wait, what was a TreeWing doing with FeatherWings? Did they force her to help her or did she agree to help them out of her own willpower?

The dark green dragon studied it, before giving it to a green TreeWing with feathers as her wing membranes.

Was that a... hybrid? And what was it doing here? Did they know that being a hybrid was seen as betrayal to their different parent species?

The TreeWing with the feathered wings passed the box to a DesertWing with pale yellow scales. The yellow dragon snorted at the green dragon with disdain before studying the box.

Mistral said nothing for a while as the box was passed to each dragon before it ended up in my talons.

I studied it, and I noticed that it was larger than the one seen earlier. A several small holes were on one of its sides, and there was one on its bottom. Were these its propellants, like a dragon's wings? Or was it something else?

I felt someone jab my underbelly, and I turned. It was Whirlpool, gesturing that I give the box to him.

I gave it to him after a bit of thought and watched him as he studied the box. He then gave it to Mother, who sat next to him, after a bit. She studied it before letting Swell look at it, before giving it to Seaquake.

I turned back and looked at Vulcan. He seemed to be watching Mother like a predator watching its prey, waiting for the right time to strike. In fact, he seemed to be watching everyone like this.

Was he observing how everyone would respond to his new technology? Or determining our future demise?

It took a while before the black box was given to the last dragon in the circle, a male MountainWing with brown and grey markings on his wings. He turned it around in his brown claws before extended his forearm to give it back to the queen.

One of the dragons that sat on either side of Mistral's throne stepped down from their post. It was the black dragon with pale blue eyes, and they snatched the box out of the MountainWings' talons before returning to their post. As they approached the brown dragon, I could see that they were like the scarred dragon on the other side of the throne – a male dragon, thanks to the soft orange-gold light emitting from the brazier's flames illuminating his physical features.

He handed the box to Mistral, who took it from his talons. "Your Majesty", he said in a slippery, eel-like voice.

"Thank you, Cori."

Mistral then gave the box to the dragon on the other side of her throne. "Cloud", she said to the scarred grey dragon, "can you put this away?"

Cloud took the box from Mistral's talons. "Yes, monarch."

As he put the box in the rawhide bag around his neck, Mistral boomed. "So, that was an introduction on why we are here. The last meal is upon us, and I would like my servants to take you to your quarters." She extended a wing towards the dragons near one of the walls and swept her wing towards the other dragons. I noticed that one of them was Vent.

They all went to the representatives, and looked at Mistral, waiting to receive their orders.

"Servants", Mistral said, "please take our guests to their quarters to get them situated here."

The servants bowed, and Vent flicked his tail at Mother, getting her attention. "This way, Monarch", he said before heading into a tunnel beyond Cori's post beside Mistral's throne.

The black dragon glared at us as we passed him and followed Vent throughout the mountain.

The grey dragon led us through tunnels that seemed to down in the mountain, deep into its bowels. But it soon turned out that we were heading towards the palace's supposed guest quarters, as it didn't quite "feel" like we were deep below the mountain.

As Vent led us into a tunnel with stone doors on one side, I could see the other draconic representatives enter their respective quarters.

We passed the FeatherWing and DesertWing representatives, who headed inside their quarters, when Vent stopped outside one of the stone doors.

"The guest quarters for visiting OceanWings", he said, and opened its door for us.

The quarters were a cave where ten dragons could easily fit in it. On the far side of it, there was a dragon-sized hole in the wall, where sunlight filtered in. On the right side of it, was a small dent in the cave, where two dragons snuggled up to each other could fit.

The five of us entered, and I noticed that there was a basket made of grass in one corner. I walked over and peered inside it.

"Those are blankets", Vent explained behind me, "for you to create your nests."

I pulled one that was blue with white clouds scattered through it with my teeth out of the basket and set it on the smooth, stony floor.

"I'll be back to assist you for last meal", Vent said. "But right now, I'll let you get comfortable and prepare for it."

The stone door scraped shut behind us, and it was just me, Mother, Swell, Seaquake, Whirlpool, and Current in the cave.

Mother scanned the cave, almost as if she were determining where we would stay.

"Hmmm", she mused before walking over to the basket and taking a blue blanket with images of flying dragons on it out with her teeth. She walking over to the one side of the cavern, Swell padding behind her as not be dragged, and put on the floor.

"Swell and I will take this...area", Mother announced, gesturing to the dent in the cave wall.

"If that's the case", Whirlpool added, "I'll stay outside it if anything happens or if you need anything."

I picked up the blue blanket I had taken out, and picked it up with me teeth and placed it on the ground near the hole in the back wall.

This would simulate my room back in the capital, but with a StormWing flare, so to speak.

Whirlpool had gone over to the basket and had chosen a grey blanket with a black pattern on it, making it look like it was made out of storm clouds. He had picked it up with his teeth and brought it over the outside the dent and placed on the smooth floor.

Likewise, Current had done the same, marking his spot near the stone door. The blanket he chose was white, and had a black pattern on it that made it seemed like he had chosen to sleep on clouds.

Seaquake had settled herself in the middle of the cavern with no blanket.

"Hey", Current called to me. I looked up, and he slung my bag across the floor to me.

I opened the bag, and saw that everything in it was intact, well except for the food. Some of it broke along the way, but that was fine.

'You should get another blanket for the egg', Seaquake flashed at me with her snout stripes.

I arched an eye ridge at her. 'What?' I flashed back at her.

'That's based on my experience with Tsunami's egg', she flashed back, accompanied by a snort.

'Alright', I flashed to her before getting up and padding back to the basket. I took another blanket out, which strangely looked a bit like the one StormWings used for their funeral rites.

I went back to my nest and set it down on top and beside the other one, when I realized that it was not the StormWing funeral cloth.

It had a blue color with a gold border, and had a grey silhouette design on it, resembling a dragon flying over the sea. Fluffy white clouds were the image's background.

It seemed like there was a common theme in StormWing blankets – images evoking their home's essence.

Hm. If we had an abovewater capital, maybe the craftsdragons could make something like this for the other species if they did visit us.

I rummaged through the bag, and pulled out The Depths of the Ocean and pulled out some ropes of pearls I had brought with me. I didn't want to bring the pearl-and-coral ropes – it would be too formal for a meeting like this.

Current had already taken his bag off his back, and Whirlpool had given Mother's and Swell's bags to them. Seaquake had slung the bag she brought her off her back as well.

Soon, everyone was preparing for our first last meal in the Mountain Claws.

As I placed The Depths of the Ocean into the blankets that made my nest, I could see Current putting a silver ring onto his right horn. It wasn't much, but at least he went prepared.

Whirlpool was putting gold rings on himself – on his claws, on his ears, and throughout his webbing.

'Current', he flashed to the blue dragon, obviously struggling with the rings for his back, 'can you help?'

Current gave a grotesque look at the rings Whirlpool had, but he sighed sucked it up like a real dragon. 'Fine.'

He padded over to Whirlpool and helped put the rings into his spine webbing on his back.

Meanwhile, Mother was wrapping herself coral-and-pearl ropes she brought around herself, making seem more like a living statue that a dragon. She was also putting a necklace made of many seashells around Swell.

As Current was finishing Whirlpool's rings, I noticed that Seaquake wasn't wearing anything.

"General", I said to her, "why aren't you wearing anything to last meal?"

"Generals", she hissed while glaring at me, "do not need to be dressed for events like this."

"You have to", Current said, "otherwise you'll be like a sky-creature with no hide on it."

"Pfft", Seaquake snorted.

"I think what Current is telling you, general", Mother said, "is that you need to have something on you for the last meal. Otherwise, you'll look like you have no respect for our guests."

Seaquake looking up and her eyes moved from side to side, as if she were thinking.

After a bit, she groaned. "Fine. Give me a piece I can wear without looking flamboyant."

Current walked over to his bag and fished out a small silver ring from it. He tossed it to Seaquake, who caught in her claws.

"Wear that on your ear", he told her. "You'll still look like the badass general you are."

Seaquake cracked a small yet brief smile before her face when back to its resting look. She put the ring in on her ear, and then everyone was ready.

Vent hadn't come by to get us for last meal, which was odd, since the sun was now getting closer and closer to sunset.

Had we really been in the palace that long?

I got up from the nest and got on my haunches so I could look out from the hole. The sky was beginning to fade from a bright blue to dark blue, and the sun was taking on an orange glow.

I could hear the ocean waves crashing up against the mountain, birds calling to each, and wingbeats from dragons whose day was ending.

It was very different than the OceanWings' capital, but in a good way.

Not only was it close to the sea, but it was also vibrant like it – full of life.

But my reverie in admiring the coming sunset was interrupted by the sound of the stone door opening. I turned around, and it was cracked open.

"Esteemed guests", I could hear Vent say on the other side, "are you ready for last meal?"

"We are", Mother told him.

"Very well. Please, followme. We are about to start."

Originally published: 03/23/2023 (typed up final manuscript of chapter 5, book 1 to page); edited: (WIP)